


Pre-War Resolve

by Nabulos



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25052341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nabulos/pseuds/Nabulos
Summary: A general meets his battle-ravaged friends as they tell him what went wrong. His ire is real.
Kudos: 2





	Pre-War Resolve

Two clicks after the Cybertonian star’s zenith, dust settling in a reinforced room on the outskirts of Tagon Heights, a mech in his prime sits, counting away some figures and charts on the table in front of him. He looks around briefly; he spots the shelves filled with pictures of him and his allies, his comrades, as they work towards a better future; he identifies few armor panels strewn across the room, shoddy things racked up from the various battles they have fought; the miscellaneous datapads filled with philosophies, manifestos, tales of valor, and half read magazines. He sighs a bit, feeling the metallic twang reverberate through his audio tube.

‘Where is he’, the mech wonders, ‘the operation should have ended half a cycle ago…’

Standing up he heads over to the holomap, making sure the place he gave was correct, glances to a hanging clock, ‘should have been here a half ---‘. A grinding of gears and a door shunting itself into the wall breaks his thought.

Fumbling forward and reaching out towards the mech is a much younger bot than himself. This bot, with so much valor and heart, comes tumbling onto his elder. The elder one reaches forward to support his friend, but misses as the metal knees crash onto the floor, hands following suit.

“They’re dead! They’re all dead! The council must have known! The council--!” the mech sobs onto the ground, slamming his hand onto the slab of metal under him.

“Wait, what happened? Where’s the rest of the brigade?” asks the older mech, kneeling in front of his crying friend.

Wiping off some lubricant from his optics, the mech looks up, “It was an ambush. The energon supply line was rooted under a military complex. I—I had no idea. The intel was solid! The intel was solid!” he breaks back into his tears.

The older mech’s visage transforms, darkness shrouds him as a fist clenches. A party of three enters the room, holding each other up, circuits exposed, and leaking. Seeing his other friends, he takes another look at the younger mech; the bot’s surface is chipped and charred, several gashes go deep into his body, his hand is missing a finger. Immediately, the older bot stiffens up and lifts his friend onto a chair.

“There were so many. Fifty Cybertronians. All under my command,” the young mech whispers into his damaged palms. His arms fall to his lap and he looks up to his friend, “You would have known what to do, you have that sort of power”.

“Orion, you don’t know that. You and I have fought so many battles, between the two of us I don’t think either is in the lead. Now I need you to tell me exactly what happened,” requests the elder mech.

“Megatronus, I think it would be wise to leave Orion alone for a moment, you know he is not used to… the more violent nature of the council,” slips a concerned seeker.

“Starscream, my friend is in agony and you want me to leave him?” the mech sneers, “You’re an idiot.”

“While that may be true, perhaps we can debrief you,” suggests Ariel, making her way towards the two generals, “We were there as well and Orion needs some rest. We rolled out of there the nanoclick our forces were overwhelmed”

“SO YOU RAN LIKE SPARKLINGS INSTEAD OF FIGHTING?” shouts Megatronus swinging his entire frame towards the femme.

“Duration: 1.75 Cycles. Battle sustainability: minimal. Suggested by: Self” grinds out an exhausted Soundwave, “Damage: … Severe”

Calming himself down, Megatronus looks towards his peers and frowns, “Forgive my anger. It hurts me more knowing my fellow Cybetronians have fallen, but I can see from your scars that you fought bravely. Ratchet is in the medical wing, you can—” he looks back towards Orion, who is completely silent, looking at the myriad of energon colors on his chassis. Megatronus walks over to him.

“Our fellow people, Megatronus, my orders, their lives…”the young mech states, “It was I, Soundwave may have suggested, but I carried the orders—”

A hand strikes Orion, causing him to fall onto the floor. Ariel, Starscream, and Soundwave, reel back in shock. Megatronus looms over, scowling down at Orion, who’s holding his face and loosely attempting to adjust his helm.

“You would dare let the death of your friends get to you, Orion? Where is your rage? Where is your empathy? Where is your compassion for your comrades who fell by you?” Megatronus snarls, “Where is that mech who screamed out the injustice and wanted so hard to fight for it? FIGHT FOR IT. DO NOT FOR A MOMENT LOSE YOURSELF TO SADNESS. SADNESS IS WEAKNESS AND WEAKNESS IS OUR DOWNFALL. TURN YOUR SYMPATHY FOR YOUR FRIENDS AND TURN IT INTO HATRED FOR MY OPPRESSORS. BE THE VESSEL OF THEIR REVENGE,” screams Megatronus.

Ariel tries to reach towards Orion, Megatronus bares his teeth towards her, “NO. Orion has to learn this now. He must not show weakness. He must not falter. He is the symbol of strength for so many, and if he falters, they all falter,” kneeling again down to Orion, who’s optics are wide with shock and terror, Megatronus extends a hand to lift him and smiles.

“Orion, my dear friend, it is because you are my friend that I struck you. It is because we all are your friends that we can talk to you so frankly. You cannot falter, you cannot fail. If you fail, then we all are failures.” Megatronus keeps his hands on the younger mech’s shoulders, smiling the way a father would to his misguided son, “Come on, let’s get you all to Ratchet. He’s going to want to check your health…”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! This is a very old work that I'm still pretty proud of. I wanted to show how all their personalities may have begun to go down the paths we know them for.


End file.
